Old Habits Die Hard
by Baby Porcupine-Cute but DEADLY
Summary: The Warriors get trapped on the 13th floor of an abandoned asylum on Halloween (Jerry: A.K.A. my birthday! Get me something!) and the only exit is on the 1st floor. Will they be able to get past all of the malevolent spirits that haunt the hospital's hallways? Or will they end up joining the ranks of the souls doomed live out the rest of eternity in misery?Warning: CHARACTER DEATHS
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, people! So, this is the Halloween fic that I promised! I admit, it's few days late, but that's okay, right? And if it's not, then I kindly ask you to FUCK OFF (if that can be considered kind). If you have a problem with something that stupid then you're seriously messed up. -_- Meh, sorry 'bout that, not really in the best of moods. The ghosts that were submitted are in this story (to the best of my knowledge). And **Hgirl, **Heidi's in this fic, too. ^v^ Or at least, I plan for her to be.**

**Disclaimer: **I really don't see why I keep doing this. If I owned Kickin' It, Olivia Holt would be in the fourth season and Kim and Jack would have kissed already. Like seriously. Milton and Kim have kissed _twice. _That's not right.

* * *

Halloween. A time for horror and fun.

But mainly horror.

The tale you are about to read is not fun. At least, not for the characters. But, in the end, you will find some fluff to satisfy your Kick desires. So read on, if you dare… and you can't do anything to me for any mental scarring that you (might and quite possibly will) have.

That's right, you little person that's actually bothering to read this.

…

Yes, I'm talking to YOU! YOU CAN'T BLAME ME FOR ANYTHING. Not for your soiled pants, not for your screams waking up your foreign grandmother, and not for you having nightmares. It's against the rules.

…

What do you mean "What rules?" THE rules. The Rules of Horror! *cue lightning and ominous music*

…

Not buying it? Yeah, I didn't think so. Just start reading.

* * *

_"Heart thumps and you jump,  
Coming down with goosebumps.  
You dared to go there,  
Ima-Ima get you so scared."_

"Wow, they really went all out this year," I comment, looking around at the orange and black decorations that decorate the Seaford Fun Park as China Anne McClain belts out the lyrics of 'Calling All The Monsters' in the background. Then again, they always go all out when it comes to the holidays, and Halloween is no exception.

Rudy gave us a day off from practice today, so we're free to do whatever we please. Instead of decorating the dojo, like we did last year, we decided to come to the Fun Park to enjoy ourselves.

"They don't always go all out?" Jack asks, surprised. After all, he's only been in Seaford for two Valentine's Days, Easters, and Fourth of Julys, and one Christmas and Halloween (not including today), and Seaford had done a really good job of going all the way when it came to decorating and holiday-themed prizes on every single one of those time-of-years. **(Urg... that sounded weird.)**

I shrug. "They didn't in the four years before you moved here. School was more decorated than those times. Then again, Seaford was going through some pretty rough times in those years…"

"Candy…" Eddie drones, his eyes widening at a bucket full of said confection in a nearby booth. The dark-skinned teen starts walking over, when Milton yanks on his collar.

"Nu-uh, nope. You are not getting candy today, not if I can help it," he says. Eddie sulks.

"Come on, Krupnick, lighten up," Jerry says. "It's my birthday, _and _it's Halloween. It's all about the candy, as a part of Halloween's Past." He says 'Halloween's Past' in a really deep and spooky kind of voice, and it actually creeps me out a little bit.

"Actually," the scrawny teen replies. "Halloween was originally a Christian Celtic holiday called 'Samhain' [pronounced Sah-ween], a time of year when—"

"— it was believed that the spirits of the dead were able to mingle with the living," he and Kiara finish together. Kiara smirks when he looks at her in surprise.

"What? You're not the only smart one in this group." She pauses, then adds to herself, "Then again, I'm more of a technologically inclined person…" She and Milton then continue their conversation about Samhain.

Well, really it's more like them shooting questions back and forth to see who knows more about "Samhain". Same difference.

"Wait, where are we?" Jack suddenly asks. The rest of us look around, taking note of our surroundings. Tall, dead, leafless trees are all around us, with darkness clinging to them like glue; dead leaves litter the unpaved ground; we had all somehow managed to wander onto a path in the woods behind the park without realizing it… if you could even call it a path. It just ends abruptly about five feet in front of us, where the trees had been left alone to grow.

"Weren't we in the middle of all those bright lights and stuff like ten seconds ago?" Jerry asks, confused. For once he's not the only one.

"Uh, yeah," Eddie says. He looks over his shoulder at the festive going-ons that we had left. "The bucket of candy I saw earlier is waaaaay back there."

"Come on, let's go back," Milton says, glancing around with a nervous expression. He turns around, ready to do as he suggested, when Jack says:

"Wait."

We all turn and see the brunet looking at something deep in the darkness of the place we were headed. "I think there's something back there," he clarifies, squinting a little and walking forward. I turn my head to see what he's looking at, but all I see is just trees, trees, and more trees. But there's something off about them…

"Woah!" Jack suddenly exclaims, as he falls forward and disappears.

_'That's what was off about it,'_ I think. _'There's a drop right ahead of us, so the trees seemed shorter.'_

"I'm okay!" Jack calls back to us, standing up. All we can see of him is his head, making me assume that the drop is about four or five feet down. "Just didn't see this little… mini-cliff." He turns back to whatever he was looking at. "It looks like some sort of building."

He starts toward it, then stops after a few steps and turns around. "You guys coming?"

Kiara grins. "Count me in!" she jumps down next to her brother, her long and wavy dark brown locks bouncing a little as she does so. I shrug, following, and reveling in the brief rush of air I get from the jump. I brush my blonde hair out of my eyes and turn to stare at the other three guys expectantly.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt…" Eddie says, mimicking us. This leaves Jerry and Milton.

_"Tengo un mal presentimiento sobre esto…"_ Jerry mutters, before leaping down next to Eddie.

"Milton?" Jack asks, looking back up at the nervous redhead.

"Uh… I don't think this is such a good idea…" he says. Jack shrugs.

"It probably isn't."

Milton blinks, before sighing and gently lowering himself down next to us.

"Dear, Mother, I'm sorry I got myself killed because I got eaten by a beast in the woods…"

"What is this place?" Kiara asks, ignoring Milton. We look up at the tall, dilapidated, about-fifteen-story building in front of us. It looks as if it might have been painted white at some point. I look around, before noticing a fallen sign about five feet off to my right. I go over and kneel down next to it, brushing the dead leaves away so I could see what is on it.

"SEAFORD ASYLUM: HOME FOR THE MENTALLY ILL" I read aloud. Off to the side, it says "STATUS: FULL". Though, most of the letters had fallen off the sign, and those that hadn't weren't in the right order. The result spells "FEAR FOR LIFE."

Just a coincidence, right?

Kiara gasps. We turn to the Brewer female and find that all the blood had drained from her face.

"Kiara?" Jerry asks. "Why do you look all scared? You're not supposed to be scared on my birthday, man!"

"We can't go in there," she states.

"What? Why?" Jack asks, curious.

She takes a deep breath. "Ever hear of the 'Thirteen Psychotic Spirits'?"

Milton groans. "Oh, come _on, _Kiara. You don't seriously believe that story, do you?"

"Not all of us are smart here, you know," I snap, annoyed. Though I didn't like the sound of the so called 'Thirteen Psychotic Spirits,' I would like to know what's going on. "We need a bit of explaining."

"This hospital was established sometime in the early 18th century," he starts. "To keep it simple, it's where they put the crazy people that the townsfolk of Seaford didn't know what to do with. Over the years, it was renovated multiple times to accommodate the growing number of people. But, one day, in 1774, a fire started on the first floor, where the, for lack of a better word, de-smoker area was. The fire spread to the rest of the hospital. Almost everyone got out… except for twelve patients and three nurses on the 13th floor."

Jerry's face is ashen. "W-why didn't they get out?"

Kiara picks up. "A few months before, 40-year-old Georgia Wenn, a patient on that floor diagnosed with agoraphobia, decided to bar the door to her room because she feared that everyone in the hospital was out to get her. She survived for about a month off of the tap water in her bathroom, but she eventually died of hunger. Some interesting bits of information; she was a smoker that believed she had pyrokinesis, and she absolutely _hated _the first floor."

"Pyro-wha?" Jack asks. He only looks mildly disturbed by the story, unlike Jerry and Eddie who seem scared out of their wits.

For once, I feel smart. "It's the ability to control fire." I only know that because I read it on the back of a bag of spicy nachos.

"Yeah, it is," Kiara says. "The building was still standing after the fire. Days later, police were investigating the fire and went to the 13th floor… the whole floor was pristine. Untouched. _It didn't burn_. But when the police found the bodies of the patients and nurses that were there, they were all burned to a crisp. The policemen on that floor reported trying to radio in for body bags and coroners, but their walkie-talkies didn't work. They tried to get out of the floor, but the doors to the elevators and stairs wouldn't open.

Eventually, their fellow officers started wondering why the men sent to investigate the 13th floor hadn't called in or come back. They tried to ride the elevator there, but it only skipped past that floor and went straight to 12 or 14. In the end, though, they managed find a way in through the window of one of the dead patients rooms and rescue their co-workers.

Now, you'd think a burned building would be weakened and eventually collapse, but no. They tried to tear down the place, but they day after they hit it with a wrecking ball it was found still standing, exactly the way it looked before the demolition."

"There's a perfectly logical explanation for that that doesn't involve ghosts," Milton says. "I just haven't found it yet."

There's silence a while after that. I turn to the hospital again and notice the scorch marks on the outside for the first time. I shiver. But then a thought occurs to me.

"Why is it the story called the Thirteen Psychotic Spirits, then? Isn't it just one that destroyed the place?"

"True," Kiara says. "But there's been evidence that the other twelve patients on that floor haunted the place as well. For example, Victoria McDaris, who had was diagnosed with multi-personality disorder, had a tendency to write on the walls of her room. Her handwriting changed with each different personality."

"…yo, you just said some reeeaaally big words," Jerry says after a pause. Kiara rolls her eyes.

"How the heck do you get in?" Jack's,voice suddenly says. I look over and see him near the front entrance of the hospital, peering in through a window.

"Jack, what are you doing?" I say slowly. I step forward, then hesitate. Can ghosts get outside the place where they died? Urg, now I wish I didn't watch Danny Phantom so much when I was younger.

"Trying to find a way in," he replies simply. He starts walking along the side of the building. After exchanging glances, the rest of us follow him. "This might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a ghost."_  
_

"Idiot," Kiara says. "Do you really want to have a playdate with Death? You think his mother Fate will bake the two of you some cookies? Well, she won't!"

Five pairs of eyes focus on the brunette. She crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow, daring someone to challenge her.

"_I _want some cookies," Eddie finally mutters.

Kiara facepalms.

We're now at the back of the hospital, where Jack continues his inspection of the building.

"Hey, I found an elevator button!" Jack exclaims. It's times like these that I wonder whether he's extremely brave or just plain stupid.

"J-Jack," Jerry stutters. "T-Think about what you're doing, man."

Jack turns, crossing his arms and smirking. "Why, Jerry. Are you _scared__?_"

Jerry huffs. "Of course not!" He says it in a tone that says what he's saying is the exact opposite of the truth.

"There's not even anything to be scared of," Milton states in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Come on, guys!" Jack exclaims. "Why not? This could be really cool!"

"Or really stupid," Kiara mutters under her breath.

"Jack…" I trail off, having no idea what to say. I'm curious, yeah, but curiosity killed the cat. Or the Kim.

"Maybe one of the ghosts is a good cook?" Eddie says hopefully.

Suddenly, a loud _creeeaaak _is heard. I look up just in time to see a branch crack from a tree above me and drop next to me.

I blink in surprise. Ok…

I bite my lip. Ghosts aren't real, right? I mean, lots of scientists say it. It's possible that Kiara's story was just twisted and warped over the years until it was as far from the truth as Russia is from Florida.

A thought occurs to me; what if a _ghost _made that branch fall?!

"Well, I'm gonna go in," Jack states, turning again. "If you guys wanna follow, you can." He takes out his phone. "I'll take pictures for ya." He steps forward and presses the button.

For a second, nothing happens, and then a ding is heard.

Jack's hands drop to his sides. I frown. For some reason, this kind of unnerves me. He stands there, looking… stiff.

"Jack?" I ask tentatively.

He doesn't respond.

"What?" Kiara snorts. "Is he having second thoughts now?"

I walk around to face him. When I see his face, my heart skips a beat. For a second, I think he's dead. His eyes are glazed over and he's not moving. I don't even think he's _breathing. _

"Jack," I say, officially freaked out.

Still no response.

I wave a hand in front of his face. Not even a twitch.

I high-five his face (it's not considered a slap if you mean well).

His head snaps to one side from the force of my high-five. He does nothing that gives off any semblance of a pained response.

"What the heck?" Kiara says.

Jack slowly turns his head back to face me. His hair had fallen in front of his eyes because of the high-five, so I can't really see them…

…but it's easy to tell that his irises are glowing a bright green.

Gasping, I stepping back away from him. The elevator dings again, and I end up backing into it. Jack follows, stepping forward as I step back. He ignores the questions of our friends behind him as he advances. He smirks, before shoving me backwards.

Everything goes black.

* * *

Darkness. Nothing but darkness.

Am I unconscious? Why? Maybe I hit my head when Jack shoved me?

I look down at myself. I can still see my clothes and hands and body. What the heck? I'm not much of a physics person, sciency/physics/whatever-the-heck-this-would-be person, but I'm pretty sure that if you're in complete darkness then you shouldn't be able to see yourself without night vision goggles or something like that.

Panic starts to set in. I thought I was in an elevator. It shouldn't be this dark in an elevator. Why do I feel like I'm floating? Where's Jack? Why was he acting like he was? Why were his eyes _glowing?_!

I turn around. There's nothing but the darkness behind me, taunting me. Take a few steps forward. Maybe, I'll eventually hit the elevator wall, and then I can feel my way through the pitch black and find the buttons.

Stepping forward, one foot at a time. I do this for a bit before I start walking. Elevators are not this big.

I start running.

I'm not in an elevator.

_Ding._

Suddenly, I'm back on solid ground again. I stumble a little at the sudden change, and then stop when I see the floor.

The white, tiled floor.

I slowly look up. I'm staring down a hallway. A white hallway, with a cieling and white lights and white walls; the typical interior of a hospital.

What the heck just happened?

I shiver a little, rubbing my arms through my long-sleeved shirt. It's _freezing _in here.

That's when I see Jack about ten feet away, lying on the floor, face up and not moving. There's a misty white haze not unlike the one you might see on a really foggy day hovering over his side.

I suck in a breath. Is that one of the ghosts? What is it doing to him? Did it have anything to do with his eyes when they changed?

The mist rises, like a person standing up. I can make out the vague outline of a human within it. I take a small step back, torn between wanting to help Jack and wanting to bolt.

The ghost comes closer, and I take another step back. My back gently bumps the wall. I mentally scowl at the fact that I was in this same position just a few minutes ago.

I close my eyes.

Seconds pass. The seconds turn into a minute, and then two. I hear a small sound, like a small almost-able-to-be-called-scratching sound. I crack an eye open.

The ghost hasn't moved from its spot. Confused, I open both eyes.

Writing is appearing on the wall, words inked in black. The letters are sort of 'bubbly,' similar to my own handwriting and making me think that the writer is a girl. The lowercase 'i's are dotted with smiley faces. I watch as sentences are formed.

_'Hey, don't freak out. Your BF is fine.'_

The words fade away as I finish reading them. I blink, blushing and glancing over at the ghost, then Jack, and then the ghost again.

"We're not… we're just friends."

_'Sure.'_

I huff. Then, "You know what's wrong with him?"

_'Yeah. He was posse—'_

The word cuts off at the 'e'. I frown, waiting for the ghost to continue. Just as I'm about to say something, more words appear.

_'Your friend was possessed by one of the more malevolent spirits.'_

The handwriting is different now, looking more like a cursive script from the 17th century than a modern teenage girl's writing. Kiara's words echo through my head:

_"Her handwriting changed with each different personality."_

"Are you Victoria McDaris?"

_'At the moment I go by Victor.'_

Ok, so that's a yes.

"Ok, um… Victor… did this 'spirit' hurt Jack?" I shift from one foot to the other, itching to be near Jack, but at the same time not sure how 'Victor' is going to react.

_'No. Spirits can easily possess or overshadow a person who has a weak mind. This was not the case with your friend, Jack you say. He is very strong-willed and has strong resolve. He fought greatly against the soul that tried to take over his body, and even when the spirit took over he was still fighting. As a result, your friend's strength was greatly taxed. His body is simply recuperating.'_

I nod. It makes sense. "It sure sounds like Jack," I say, smiling wryly.

There's a brief pause. Then,

_'I can tell you care greatly about this boy. Go to him.'_

I'm by Jack's side before Victor finishes. I sit down and place his head on my lap. "You're gonna get yourself killed one day," I murmur fondly, brushing his hair out of his eyes. He stirs at my touch.

"Urg… Kim, shuddup… nappy time…"

I almost die with relief, even though Victor said that Jack was going to be fine. Seeing him move and respond to me just makes me feel better. I flick his forehead.

"No, it's not nappy time. It's time to find a way out of here."

It takes a half-asleep Jack a few seconds to process information. So, I wait. 3… 2… 1…

He sits up abruptly. "Oh my gosh, Kim— I'm so sorry, I didn't—"

Jack stands up, and I do as well. He runs a hand through his hair, before gently gripping my forearms and scanning my face with worried chocolate brown eyes. "Did I hurt you? God, I don't even know what I was doing—"

"Jack, I'm fine," I say quietly, cutting him off as I try to ignore the warmth in my cheeks. "It's okay." I break eye contact and turn my head to the side.

That's when I notice that Kiara, Eddie, Milton, and Jerry are all standing in front of the elevator staring at us expectantly.

I feel my eyes widen. Kiara is the first one to figure out that I've noticed them. "Oh, by all means, continue," she says. "We won't bother you."

Jack and I take a step away from each other. My face is burning as Jack coughs awkwardly.

"Aww, you guys are so precious!" Milton gushes.

Jerry laughs. "Jacky and Kimmy, sitting in a tree—"

"Finish that sentence and I will hurt you in ways that haven't even been invented yet **(1)**," I growl. Jerry's smile drops from his face and he takes a step behind Eddie.

"Hey, there are words appearing on the wall!" Eddie exclaims, pointing at the wall.

I turn and see the black letters are different once again. They're now neat and a bit curvy.

_'I would say I hate ta ruin this moment, but it seems like your friends've already beat me to it.'_

"Woah, are we being watched or something?" Milton asks warily, looking around.

"Sort of. The ghost of Victoria McDaris is around here somewhere," I respond.

"Hah! I told you they were real!" Kiara boasts smugly in Milton's face. Then her smirk fades and she pales. "They're real," she repeats in a whisper.

_'Well, I'm Vicky right now. Anyway, the elevator isn't goin' ta work anymore. You kids are goin' ta have ta get ta the first floor ta get out.'_

"Ok, so we just use the stairs," Jack says. "No problem."

_'It's not that simple. Each floor is haunted by a former patient. You have to get past the spirits to get to each stairwell. I'll try to help ya'll as best as I can.'_

"Well, what floor are we on?" Eddie asks.

"The very top, the thirteenth," Kiara says faintly. She pauses, before asking, "Are we gonna die?"

_'I can't answer that, pumpkin. I don't know.'_

* * *

**"Oooooooh myyyyyy gooooood, oh my god, oh my god. There's gonna be another chapter, right? RIGHT?!"**

**—My little sister when she finished**

**Well, I think _she _liked it. I wonder if I can say the same about you guys? So, anyway, my little sister suggested doing a quote at the end of every chapter. Ignoring the one that was directly before this paragraph, here is a quote:**

**"That's what."**

**—she**

**Yeah, I found that on the internet the other day. XD. **

**(1) This line is from a Nickelodeon movie that came out earlier this year. Can any of you tell me what it's name is?**

**Ok. So, not sure when I'll be able to update because school's been killer. Thriller. _It's close to midnight, something evil's lurking at the door... _Sorry. You gotta love Micheal Jackson. _  
_**

**Anyway, review!**

**Until next time, **

**~BP**


	2. Chapter 2

**The next chapter of _Old Habits Die Hard _commences, now!**

* * *

_"¿¡Qué?!" _Jerry screeches. "We might not live?!_No puedo morir todavía! Me gusta vivir! ¡Es divertido! Y todavía tengo que broma Señor—_"

I sigh. Full out Spanish, in this case, means completely terrified Jerry. And though he does have good reason to be scared, he's not exactly helping to keep my level of panic down.

I walk up to him and slap (it's considered a slap because I wanted to hurt him so he would shut up) him in the face. "Jerry, shut up."

Jerry recoils from the blow, holding his cheek and scowling at me.

_'Okay you guys, Victoria here. Behind a door at the end of this hallway is a flight of stairs. You need to take them down to the twelfth floor.'_

"Why can't we just take them all the way down to the first floor?" Jack asks, eyebrows furrowing.

_'The hospital_ _changed after the fire. Ms. Wenn did some… 'renovating.' The stairs to the twelfth floor are on the western side of the building. The ones from the twelfth to the eleventh are on the eastern side. Then, the eleventh to tenth are on the western side again. The pattern continues all the way to the first floor.'_

"Ghosts can't eat people, can they?" Eddie squeaks.

_'__…_None of them except for one.'

Eddie makes a strangled noise.

_'I'm really sorry you guys. I wish I could do more to help you__…'_  


"You've done plenty, Victoria," I say softly. "Thank you."

A creaking sound is heard behind us. We turn and see the door at the end of the hallway opening.

_'Good luck, all of you.'_

Milton rolls his eyes. "I can't believe you all are falling for this. For all we know, there's a projector somewhere in the_…_ ceiling_…_" He trails off, eyes widening as his body starts to rise off of the ground. He squeals in a very unmanly way, his arms pinwheeling as he slowly starts to turn upside down.

_'How about now, hmm?'_

"Some sort of_…_ invisible rope_… _attached_… _when I wasn't looking?_…_" Milton's protests seem halfhearted now. I smirk, hand on my hip. Kiara makes a smug sound and crosses her arms. Jack, Jerry and Eddie full out laugh, the oh-my-god-that's-hilarious, bent-over-with-hands-on-knees kind of laughter.

Milton is now completely upside down with his head about five feet above the ground. His face is red as he sputters "Ok, ok! Ghosts are real! Put me down!"

He is turned upright in mid-air, and gently lowered to his feet. His clothes ruffle, as if someone was brushing dirt off of him.

_'Ok, not to be mean or anything, but that was pretty fun.' _

Milton huffs, marching away to the door at the end of the hallway.

"I really don't wanna die today," Jerry grumbles under his breath, before going after Milton.

"Thanks again, Victoria," Eddie says sincerely, following them. With similar expressions of thanks, Jack and Kiara follow suit.

I linger, staring at the wall. "We really appreciate this, Victoria," I say.

_'It's not like I have anything better to do. The closest ghost to my age is a girl named Iris, and she's twelve. I would hang out with her but I can't leave this floor.'_

I blink, surprised. The closest to her age is twelve?

"How old were_… _er_… _are you?"

_'Thirteen. And if you wanna repay me, then don't die.'_

I nod, before walking down the hallway.

* * *

I'm the last one to walk out of the stairway. I close the door behind and me and go stand beside Jack. The six of us are in a line, side by side, as we stare at the sight before us.

Mirrors.

Hundreds and hundreds of mirrors.

They're covering every surface; the (extremely high) walls, the floor, and they might even be on the ceiling (even though the ceiling is so high up that it's not even visible). All sorts of shapes and sizes, including circles, rectangles, squares, the occasional heart, and there's a couple of funhouse mirrors, too. To say that so many mirrors in one room doesn't screw with your vision is a complete and utter lie.

Jerry says the one thing that's on all of our minds:

"What the _heck_?"

My phone buzzes in my pocket. Surprised, I bring it out and look at the screen. It's a blank white, with black Victoria's black script scrolling upwards.

_'I managed to turn your phones on and fiddle with some things. You can look things up and use your tools but you can't call for help. Sorry. Anyway,this is a maze. People have gotten really lost in here because of the mirrors messing with their eyes and altering the light and stuff like that. Be careful, and get through it as fast as you can__… ugh, it feels like there's something I'm forgetting to tell you__…_'

I look up to tell the others, only to find that they had their phones out as well. Jack must have stuck his in his pocket before, because it's in his hand now.

"It's okay, Victoria," I say, comforting the young girl's ghost. "If you forgot it it must not be that important."

_'I dunno__…'_

"Victoria, this is the floor that Brendan Callaghan haunts, isn't it?" Kiara asks softly.

_'Yeah. Hold on, let me see if I can get you guys a map.'_

"Who's Brendan Callaghan?" Jack asks warily.

"One of the patients that died in the fire," Kiara responds. "He was diagnosed with a severe case of narcissistic personality disorder, which basically is a condition where you have an extreme sense of self-importance and a lack of empathy for others. He was seen as unusually arrogant and exploitative, but he was arrested and hospitalized after going on a rampage and killing anyone he believed was inferior to him. That meant everyone he saw. His face, his most prized possession, suffered the most in the fire. It was completely burned beyond recognition."

"How do you know so much about this hospital?" Milton asks.

Kiara shrugs. "TV special. This lady went in and had a camera rolling live… she made it to the fifth floor with her cameraman, before…"

"Before what?" I ask, nervous.

Kiara stays silent.

Our phones buzz again. This time, there's a little miniature maze on the screen, and a little green blip that showed our position.

"Ugh. Do we have to get all the way to the other side?" Jerry groans. "I was never good with mazes when I was a _niño. _I always drew a straight line all the way through the middle."

Something makes me think he _still _isn't good with mazes.

"My mom _loves _mazes!" Eddie says happily. "She had a big book full of them and I help her a lot. Let's see here…"

He stares at his screen intently for a couple of minutes, before grinning. "I got it!"

"Then lead the way!" Milton exclaims, a little too enthusiastically. When he sees us staring at him, he frowns and mutters something incoherent.

Eddie starts walking. The rest of us follow.

* * *

About a thousand rights and lefts later, we're about three-fourths of the way through the maze (according to Eddie). So far, nothing has happened, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Eddie suggests we stop for a breather. The rest of us agree.

"Gah… are we there yet?" Jerry wheezes.

"Jerry, why are you so worn out?" Milton asks, amused. "We're _walking._"

"Well, if a _turtle _was going this fast, then it would be running," Jerry retorts.

I open my mouth to say something to that, and then I close it again. This _is _Jerry after all. Despite this, Kiara says something about him being an idiot, and Jerry thanks her. This sparks another insult, which eventually leads to arguing.

Meanwhile, Jack had walked over to a random spot in the wall and was checking his hair in it. I roll my eyes, standing by his side.

"Are you _seriously _worried about your hair right now?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. Though I'm not surprised, you'd think he have 'hair' a bit lower on his priority list than it usually is.

"I'm not worried," he responds without looking at me, pulling a little miniature spray bottle out of his pocket. "I'm just making sure it looks okay."

I watch as he sprays whatever is in the bottle onto his brown locks. "Is that _hairspray?!_" Since when does he carry around hairspray? I admit, it's pretty ingenious of him, but… still.

"Uh, yeah," he says in a 'duh, are you stupid' tone that he often uses with Jerry.

I huff.

I observe Jack primp his hair a little longer, raising an eyebrow when he suddenly stops.

"What? You've finally figured out that…" My sarcastic response trails off when I see his pale face. He takes a step away from the mirror, and then another.

The buzz that signals a message from Victoria is heard again. I retrieve my phone from my pocket and look at the screen.

_'Darlings, I remember what Victoria forgot ta tell ya! Whatever ya do, DON'T LOOK INTA THE MIRRORS!'_

I look up, eyes widening when I see a dark brown bump protruding from the smooth surface of the mirror Jack was looking into. It gets bigger, bigger, until it's about the size of a human head.

That's when I realize it _is _a human head.

It comes out further, revealing a pale tan color. Skin. Which meant that the dark brown was hair. Next are the thing's shoulders, and then its arms. It places its hands onto the cool surface of the tile floor and walks on them putting one hand in front of the other until its pulled itself completely out of the mirror.

And yet, none of what just happened is the scariest thing. No, no, no, not by a long shot. The _scariest _thing is that it looks exactly like Jack, from the clothes to the hairstyle, except for the face.

Or, more specifically, the _lack _of a face.

There are only faint rises and falls that merely suggest that there are facial features there, like the deep indentations for the eye sockets or the round tip of the nose, though it does have the two little mole-freckles that Jack has on either cheek. None of us move for a few seconds. Not the ghost/creature/_thing_, not Jack, me or Kiara or any of the other guys.

Terror squeezes my heart in its vice-like grip. I want to run. So, _so _badly. But I stay, for fear that the slightest movement will set the thing off. Is this the ghost of Brendan Callaghan? Why does it look like Jack?

My mind flashes back to Victoria, no, Vicky's warning: Don't look into the mirrors. The ghost must live in these reflective surfaces, waiting for someone to gaze at themselves within one. Then, it takes the form of that person…

…and does what?

_"I'm better than you."_

Brendan's voice sounds male, demonic, like an old man with a sore throat. He also had an accent that sounded distinctly Irish. He takes a step towards the petrified Jack, who moves back.

_"I'm _better _than you," _Brendan says again, sounding angrier. _"You're inferior! You don't deserve a face!"_

The ghost pounces, tackling Jack to the ground. The brunet's reflexes saved his life, because he managed to dart out of harms way and flip the evil spirit onto its back. It stays there, motionless for a few seconds, before sinking into the mirrors on the ground.

As if by some unspoken signal, the six of us start running, with Eddie leading the way.

Jack screams.

I turn and see him on his back on the ground, struggling to keep Brendan's claws _— _wait, where did _those _come from?! _— _away from his face.

I hear a war cry, then air rushing past me, and then Jerry is there tackling the ghost off of Jack. The Latino grabs the ghost by the hair and slams its head into the floor a couple of times with such ferocity that my fear is temporarily replaced by surprise. I wince as I hear a sickening crack with each hit. The ghost's head oozes a thick, bright-green, gelatin-like substance that seems like the supernatural version of blood.

Brendan sinks back into the ground, but this time he drags Jerry down into the mirrors with him.

* * *

**"I guess that's just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up."  
********―Lauren Oliver, _Delirium_**

**Too depressed to say much. Review?**

**Until next time,**

**-BP**


	3. Chapter 3

***top author's note mashed in with the bottom one***

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Kickin' It, there'd be major angst (because I LOVE angst), Jack and Kim would have already kissed, Olivia wouldn't be leaving, and Eddie would still be in the show. And there would be an episode centered around Joan, Rudy, Bobby, Sam, and Phil. They need more attention. And there would be an episode where Kai comes back to cause trouble. And**―**

**Jerry: **An episode where Jerry gets all the girls and is loved by everyone, because it's his birthday. *smirk* I mean, it's not like I'm not loved already.**********  
**

…

**Jerry: **Meh. On with the fic. I wanna know what happens to me!

* * *

"_Jerry!" _Jack screams, crawling over to the place where his best friend and his worst nightmare had disappeared. He pounds on the glass with his fists, as if that would bring Jerry back. _"No!"_

I'm not sure what made me want to cry more; not knowing what happened to Jerry, or the tortured anguish in Jack's voice. Out of all of us, Jerry was the guy that was closest to Jack. To have your best friend save your life, and then ripped away from you in the same moment… I can't imagine what Jack is going through.

Jerry…

"Jack," Kiara says, her voice choked as she walks over and kneels next to him. There are tears streaming down her cheeks. I realize that I'm crying as well. "Look, I really hate to sound insensitive, but… we have to go."

A big part of me automatically wants to hit her for even _suggesting_ that. How could we possibly leave Jerry after what he just did? Is she seriously that heartless?

Then another smaller part of me says she's right. What can we possibly do? Brendan and Jerry could be in any one of these mirrors, not just the one they disappeared in.

The two parts of me butt heads, screaming at each other.

"No!" Jack yells, rounding on Kiara. He stands up, his hands curled into fists. "He saved my life! We can't just leave him to die!"

"Yeah!" Eddie exclaims, walking over to stand next to Jack. "We can't leave him! He's _Jerry! _And we need him!"

"He sacrificed himself for you, Jack," Kiara says softly. "He saved you knowing the risks he was taking. You can't just let that go to waste."

"Kiara's right," Milton says, just as softly. "You should let his sacrifice be for naught."

_Naught? _

"No," Jack says again, ever the stubborn one.

I look between the two sides, the loyal and the logical. Who's right? Both of them! God, this is so hard…

"I'll figure something out," Jack says again. "I'll… I'll…"

Kiara jumps on his hesitation, albeit a bit reluctantly. "You'll what, Jack? What are you going to do? Jump into one of the mirrors and get him? We all know you can't do that."

"I'll figure something out!" Jack says again, more forcefully, as if trying to convince himself as well as his twin. "I always do, don't I?" His voice wavers. Then, with a quiet curse to himself, he punches a nearby mirror. It breaks underneath his fist, but, strangely, the pieces don't fall to the ground.

A loud screeching noise is heard. Then, further down the hallway, beyond Kiara and Milton, Jerry falls out of one of the mirrors.

"Jerry!" Jack exclaims, surprise and relief etched into his voice. He's the first one to run over there, along with Eddie, and then the rest of us.

Jerry lies on the floor, writhing in pain. I catch a glimpse of his face.

"Jack, that's not Jerry," I say faintly, stepping back.

Jack's eyebrows furrow together, and he steps forward. The relief on his face fades, replaced by anger. He kicks the form on the ground next to him. "WHERE IS JERRY?!"

He punches another mirror, shattering it. Brendan lets out another unearthly screech.

"Wait, maybe Jerry came out in one of the mirrors near the exit?" I suggest.

"That's possible, but what if he isn't? What if he is in one of the hallways we've already passed or gone through?"

"We'll have to take that chance," Milton says. "Brendan seems to be recovering…"

Jack frowns, clearly unhappy with the idea, but he starts running anyways. He lets Eddie take the lead and soon we're all running, peeking into the hallways we pass by to see if Jerry's in any of them.

Brendan comes falling out of some of the mirrors on the way. Whenever he does, Jack stops and breaks one of the mirrors, prompting Brendan to either fall on the ground and shriek or sink back into his mirrors and shriek. Either way, breaking the mirrors was clearly hurting him, and I think Jack got satisfaction from that fact.

"Right around this corner… here's the door!" Eddie exclaims. Indeed, right in front of us is the door to the next floor. Just steps away…

"Wait, what about Jerry?" Jack abruptly says, stopping behind us. My heart sinks. We still haven't found Jerry.

I turn to face Jack, glancing in the mirror for a split second. Then, I wince, realizing what I had just done. Sure enough, a golden-yellow bump rises from the floor, slowly and dramatically, and seconds later Brendan is standing there in front of Jack. He is a carbon copy of me, minus the face and plus four razor sharp metal blades that resemble that of Wolverine's protruding out of his hands. I shiver, unnerved. Jack glances back at me for a half second before he turns again.

He growls, calling Brendan a not-so-nice name. "What have you done with Jerry?" His voice is low, threatening, and it scares the crap out of me.

Brendan doesn't reply.

Screaming in anger, Jack rushes at the motionless ghost. Brendan leaps forward as well, and then there's a mess of flying limbs, and I can't tell who is who.

Something clicks in my head. I turn to the other three.

"Why aren't we doing anything?!" I exclaim.

Jack screams. I turn and see him off to the side, with his hands covering his face. Brendan is stalking towards him, like a predator descending on its prey.

"Break all the mirrors you can!" I yell.

We snap into action. I pound on two different mirrors with my fists, watching them crack underneath my hands. Off to my left, Eddie is jumping up and down on the mirrors on the floor, Kiara is kicking ones on the wall, and Milton is rushing over to Jack's side.

"You guys, I'm gonna get him to the stairwell," Milton announces over the sound of Brendan's screeches. Then, without waiting for a response, he hooks his arms underneath Jack's form and starts dragging him. Jack's face is covered in blood, and I feel the tacos I had for lunch (in honor of Jerry's birthday) start to come back up.

"Come on!" Milton's voice says. Eddie, Kiara and I run the few steps to the doorway, and Kiara slams it shut behind us. Jack slumps, sliding down the door until he's sitting down and leaning against it. Eddie turns and rests his head against the wall. Milton closes his eyes and rubs his face tiredly. Kiara sits down next to her twin, an arm around his shoulders. I hug myself, wishing that this was just one big nightmare.

* * *

Silence.

Then, our phones buzz. Kiara's the only one who takes hers out. She stares at the screen for a second, and then looks down at the ground near her side. There, on the ground, is a first aid kit. She wordlessly picks it up, opens it up, drenches a small cloth in some sort of liquid, and starts dabbing at Jack's face. He winces once, but otherwise doesn't show any indication of pain.

Slowly, Kiara cleans away the blood. There are four, parallel scratches on his face, running down diagonally from his left temple to the right side of his jaw. I wince.

At least his eyes and eyelids weren't damaged.

Kiara finishes and packs up the kit.

"Jerry-y…" Jack whispers, the first one to speak after what seems like hours. In reality it was probably only a few minutes. His voice cracks at the end of the last syllable.

That's when my dam breaks, and I start crying. The air then becomes filled with the sound of five teenagers crying, mourning the loss of a dear friend.

Jerry. The guy that managed to lose a fight with an umbrella. The guy that cried when Flynn died in _Tangled. _The guy that accidentally launched himself into space. The guy that was so naive that one might wonder if his brain had been switched with a two-year-old's. But also the comedian that always managed to make everyone laugh, no matter what time of day. The loyal friend that was (usually) there when you needed him. The adventurer who was brave when he wanted to be, even without realizing it.

Gone.

My heart hammers against my chest, so hard that I fear the others may hear it. Jerry's voice echoes through my head, reminding me of the time when he accidentally locked himself inside of a closet.

_"Man, why won't this door open?!"_

The beating organ in my rib cage pounds harder, its rhythm uneven. Some small part of me that's not sobbing says that that's not normal.

_"Can anybody hear me?!"_

Good ol' Jerry.

_"Please!_ Por favor! _Uh… _Alstublieft_? For the people that speak Dutch? _"

Wait a second…

"Holy Christmas nuts…" Milton whispers.

Jack was already standing up, fumbling for the doorknob. He yanks the door open, revealing a bedraggled Jerry with both fists raised in the air, ready to pound on the wood again. There are four long, parallel tears in his graphic tee and leather vest, the lower part of his pant leg is ripped off, his hair is matted on one side, and there are four short (but deep looking) cuts on one cheek.

The Latino grins weakly. "_¡Gracias a Dios!_ I thought there was no one home!" He takes a step forward.

"Jerry! Oh my God, you're not dead…" Jack hugs Jerry to him tightly. Kiara shuts the door behind him. The two-way hug quickly turns into a six-way hug.

"Hey, hey, hey, easy on the merchandise," Jerry's voice is heard saying, slightly muffled because of him being somewhere in the middle of five other people. "It's been damaged…"

One by one, we peel ourselves away from Jerry. Kiara brings forth the first-aid kit again and gets Jerry to sit down, quickly getting to work on his injuries.

"Aw, Kiara," he says, smirking as Kiara lifts his shirt to examine his torso. "If you wanted to undress me you should have just asked. I know a body like this is, ah—" He pops up the collar on his leather vest. "—irresistible."

I smile. Yep, Jerry's definitely back.

Kiara glares at the smug teen. "I would slap you if I wasn't afraid that it would reopen the cuts on your cheek."

"That's exactly why I said it."

Jack shakes his head, though relief is evident on his features. "Jerry… Ah, I don't even know." He runs a hand through his hair. "I'm so glad you're okay, man. I can't believe…"

Jerry's expression softens. "That I risked my life to save your black-belt butt? Yeah, I can't either." His face then scrunches up in pain. "_Ow._"

"Sorry," Kiara states, not sounding like she means it as she pulls his shirt back down.

"What happened back there?" Milton asks.

"Honestly…" Jerry muses, "I… don't know. I remember getting pulled into the mirrors, and then it was like I was underwater or something. Everything after that is really fuzzy. But…" His eyebrows furrow together as he digs into his memories. "I heard you guys… Arguing. About whether or not to leave me." He shrugs. "I really would have preferred if you guys left." His mouth curves into another smirk. "Because if Jerry Martinez sacrifices for you, you take advantage of that, because I can't guarantee it will happen again."

* * *

"OOOOOOOH!"

We all whip around at the sound of Eddie's voice. Said teen is standing there with a purple substance around his mouth and two half-eaten cupcakes in his hands.

"THESE ARE THE BEST CUPCAKES EVER!"

"…cupcakes." I say flatly. "Where the HECK did you get cupcakes from?"

"The wall."

I blink, observing our surroundings for the first time. It looks like an EasyBake oven threw up on every available surface. The walls are made up of every kind of sweet imaginable, from doughnuts to Twizzlers to little chocolates. The floor and ceiling have a spongy brown texture to it, and look suspiciously like gingerbread.

The place where Eddie is standing has to small holes, from where he got the cupcakes.

For the second time today: WHAT THE HECK?!

"Oh," Kiara says thoughtfully. "This is Heidi Tomlinson's floor."

Our phones buzz. I pull mine out of my pocket and glance at the screen.

_'Lucky for you guys, Heidi's harmless. I don't think I'll ever know a 14 year old with a bigger sweet tooth. Enjoy an easy floor, and pig out all you want. She won't mind.'_

I blink. "Ok…"

I turn back to say something to the rest of my friends, only to find a girl's face directly in front of mine. And it's upside down.

I scream.

The girl frowns, turning herself mid-air until she's right-side up and hovering about an inch or two from the ground. Long, dark brown hair with blonde streaks hangs down to the middle of her back, held out of her face with a dark blue headband that has a small doughnut on it. She's wearing a light blue hoodie with pictures of cupcakes and candies and things like that on it. Her blue jeans have candies outlined in rhinestones on them.

"Live people seem to be louder than I remember," she mutters under her breath. But then she quickly brightens. "But it's only been a year since the last group of humans came to visit! That's amazing! Who are you?" She speaks quickly, like Eddie when he's on a sugar high.

"Uh…" My mind is still reeling from the scare. "Kim?"

"You don't sound so sure about that," she states in a matter-of-fact tone. Then, with a sudden 'pop' she's disappeared in a light pink cloud. A split-second and another light-pink cloud later, she's floating right beside Jack. Her sudden appearances and disappearances seem similar to those of Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof from _Fairly Odd __Parents._

Jack starts, his reflexes lashing out to hit the girl. She disappears again and reappears beside Milton, hovering higher above the ground now, and her elbow is propped on the smart teen's head.

"That wasn't very nice," she says, pouting for about two seconds before her expression brightens once again. She pops back over to Jack, with a finger on his chest. His hand jerks, but he manages to reign in his automatic response. "But I'll forgive you 'cuz you're kinda cute." He blinks.

I scowl.

She pops over to Jerry, upside down this time, and gasps. "You're hurt!" She pops over to a nearby wall, removes what looks like a sugar cookie from it, and pops back over to Jerry with it. "Eat it! It'll make you feel better!" She stares at Jerry with an encouraging smile as he takes the cookie from her, albeit a bit warily. He takes a bit, and the color immediately returns to his face.

She appears in front of me, grinning like a maniac. "Uh, Kim, do you have any music? Because the last people that came here had some! And it was so cool! It came out of this magical little—"

"What did you just call me?" I say, interrupting her. She was talking so fast that I had to re-think and mentally pick apart her sentences in order to understand her.

"Uh, Kim. That is what you said her name was, isn't it?"

"No, it's just Kim," I clarify.

"Oh, sorry Just Kim." She smiles apologetically.

"No! Kim! K-I-M!" I exclaim.

"Kim K-I-M?" The fact that she seems genuinely confused is what is annoying me the most.

"GAH!"

"Huh?"

"You can just call her Kimmy!" Eddie states, from off to the side. I glare at him, noticing that the wall near him is almost completely empty.

That boy can _eat. _

"Oh!" She pops next to him, an arm around his shoulder. "Ok!"

Meanwhile, Jerry, Kiara, Milton, and Jack seem to be enjoying this immensely.

The girl pops back to the middle of the room. "Silly me! I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Heidi Tomlinson!" She giggles in pops again, this time appearing upside down in the same spot she was in before. "And I LOVE making friends! The people that came here last year were so nice to me! One of them was a man and the other was a woman, and their names were Dwayne and Sarah. Dwayne had a big black thing that he carried on his shoulder! I asked him what it was and he said it was—" She lowers her voice to a whisper, as if she was about to reveal some huge secret. "— a _camera! _I told him I'd only heard of a camera obscura and he showed me what his camera could do! It was magical! It had a little miniature version of me in it!" She giggles.

I blink. She'd never heard of a _camera?! _Then I remember that Kiara said this hospital burned down in 1774. I don't think they had cameras back then. But then again, they didn't have hoodies either. So what the heck?

I inch over to where Kiara is standing, watching Heidi rattle on out of the corner of my eye. "Kiara, you said this hospital burned down in 1774, right?" I ask.

She nods.

"So then how is Heidi wearing a hoodie and jeans? Isn't that kinda modern?"

Kiara shrugs. "My theory is the the spirits subconsciously ended up changing their appearances and speech patterns to match the present day trends, but not any of the actual customs. I remember in the live TV special I saw about this hospital, Sarah Hallowane and her cameraman Dwaye Saween encountered Heidi as well. Sarah wondered the same thing."

"—and wait a second, are you guys hungry?" Heidi was saying when I tune back in. "You can totally take as much as you want from the walls, I won't mind. And the little white cubes are AnyThings, they'll turn into whatever you want them to."

I shrug, and turn to the wall beside me, grabbing a cake pop and unwrapping it. Kiara picks one of the AnyThings. It's about the size of a sugar cube. She stares at it for a moment, and it turns into a small box of french fries. She grins wolfishly, digging in.

"Take as many of them as you want, I can make more."

Kiara starts loading the AnyThings into her pockets.

"Anyway, Sarah had this magical little box thing that played music! I forgot what it was called, but it had a little rectangle that lit up and a button shaped like a doughnut. I heard something that she said was a band called 'Burgundy 5' and another called 'Fall In Girl' and someone else called 'Britney Arrows' and—"

"Heidi, are you talking about a MyPod?" Milton asks curiously, while munching on a muffin. If possible, Heidi's eyes light up even more.

"Yes! That was it!n MyPod! It was wonderful!" Her expression turns wistful. "Do any of you guys happen to have one?" She pops over to Jack and smiles in a flirty way. "Do you?"

"Um, yeah," the brunet says, after swallowing the last of his chocolate bar, though he does sound a bit nervous. He backs away a little and pulls his MyPod out of his pocket, whipping out a pair of headphones somewhere within the depths of his hoodie and hands them to her. "Here you go."

Curse his natural kindness to everyone. I scowl, and Kiara pokes me in the side, smirking.

She takes them from him, staring at the headphones and looking confused. "What are these?"

"Headphones," Jack responds, sounding amused.

Heidi stares at him blankly.

"Here," he says. He takes the headphones from Heidi's hands and places them on her head, over her ears. He plugs the other end into the headphone jack on his MyPod, fiddling with the MP3 device before placing it in Heidi's hand.

The ghost's eyes widen. I can't help but laugh at her reaction. It's so weird knowing someone that doesn'tknow what a MyPod is. I guess it's good to know that Pear hasn't corrupted _some _part of civilization.

"Ooh! It's a guy!" Her nose scrunches up. "He sounds kinda weird though…"

Jack blinks. "Oh, that's probably Ricky Weaver." He flashes me a meaningful look, and I look away. The Ricky Weaver Incident, as I like to call it, still stings quite a bit. "Still don't know why I haven't deleted that yet…" He reaches out a hand and Heidi gives the small device back to him. He messes with it again and changes the song.

Heidi grins, popping herself closer to Jack. "I like this one!"

He looks distinctly uncomfortable, taking another step away. "Yeah, I do, too. It's by Victoria Rocks."

She bobs her head to the music, absently drifting away like a leaf the surface of a calm river.

"Uuuuuugghh, you guys…" Eddie groans, walking over to where the rest of us are. "I'm so _full_!"

I glance over and see that the whole wall he had been next to was empty. Why am I not surprised?

"That's what you get for eating a whole wall of food, man," Jerry says, chuckling and patting the dark-skinned teen on the shoulder. I blink, trying to remember when he stood up.

The Latino pauses, looking down at his arms. "Whoa! I'm not bleeding anymore!" he says in an awestruck tone.

"Yep! That's what the healing cookies are do!" Heidi says, having suddenly appeared upside down in front of him.

_"Dios mio!" _he shrieks, clutching the shirt fabric over his heart. "Woman, you gotta stop doing that! You don't scare a man on his birthday, even if his birthday is on the national day of scaring!"

Kiara snorts. "Man?"

Jerry glares at her.

"It's your birthday?" Heidi asks curiously. She pops over to the wall and removes one of the AnyThings, then pops back over to Jerry. The small cube instantly turns into a small pizza box. "Happy birthday!"

"Oooh, _gracias, mamacita!" _Jerry says happily, grabbing the box from her and opening it. She pops behind him, peeking over his shoulder.

"What is it?" she asks, cocking her head to the side a little.

"Pepperoni pizza, minus the pepperoni with extra cheese!" Jerry responds with a grin, grabbing a slice and taking a huge bite out of it.

I don't understand why he doesn't just call it 'cheese pizza' like a normal person.

"Hmm… strange favorite food… " Heidi murmurs. Then, she pops over to me. "Hi, Kimmy! Haven't heard from you in a while!"

I growl in annoyance. She giggles and grabs an AnyThing from the wall. Seconds later, it's a pack of the Red-Orange Candy Package Sent From Heaven.

Or as you might call them, KitKats.

My eyes widen. "KitKat…" My ultimate weakness. Dang, this ghost is good. She tosses the package to me and I tear it open, breaking the two bars and relishing the signature crack/crunch sound that it makes. I take a bite and close my eyes in bliss.

I love these things.

The next five minutes are a blur as I focus on nothing but the little piece of warm gold in my mouth.

When I finish the KitKats (sadly), I find myself I'm facing a door. I blink, and then turn to see our new surroundings.

The thing is, they're not new.

It's another hallway, similar like the one from Victoria's floor. It looks like we're actually in a hospital, with doors on either side. But, unlike Victoria's floor, this one is wider; wide enough for all six of us to walk side by side with a few feet to spare on either side. And, unlike Victoria's floor, this one has a distinct coldness to it. Not like, "ooh, it's a little chilly in here" cold, but "I have a really bad feeling about this, is there someone behind me?" cold.

I glance behind me.

"Hey, looks like Kim has come out of her KitKat Haze," Jerry's voice says, cutting into my thoughts. That's what my friends call the brief period of time in which I zone out, which results from whenever I have a KitKat. I suppose it's pretty accurate.

"Welcome back, Kim," Jack says, smirking. "While you were dead to the world, we found the door on Heidi's floor and found ourselves here."

My mood briefly sours at the name. Heidi_. _Hmmph. Ghost thinks she can make a move on Jack, she's sadly mistaken. Newsflash, sister: you're _dead._

Literally.

We start walking, alert for anything out of the ordinary. From left to right, it's Milton, Eddie, Jerry, Jack, me, and Kiara.

"Oh my god, this is the tenth floor!" Kiara suddenly blurts, interrupting the silence. I stop, and so do the rest of us. I study her expression, worried; her face is pale and frightened.

"Why is that important?" I ask softly.

"Two brothers, Mike and Hartono Komodo, haunt this floor. Mike was a doctor before he was hospitalized, a self proclaimed Angel of Death. If any of his patients were experiencing the smallest amount of pain, he…" Her voice cracks a little. "…'put them out of their misery'… by killing them. He was thirty-six, three years older than his brother Hartono, who used to be a knife-thrower in a circus. He was fired after a mishap with an elephant. Afterwards, he developed a dangerous obsession with the blades he used to work with and started killing. Both were checked into this asylum in the same year."

She takes a shaky breath. "They teamed up after they died. Hartono would injure someone. If they didn't die, Mike would 'put them out of their misery.' It's _horrible._"

Our phones buzz, signaling a message from Victoria.

_'Yes, Kiara, this is where the Komodo brothers reside.'_ Victor's cursive script says._ 'Beware of their spectral blades as you travel through this infinite hallway; it has no end.__ Believe in yourself and walk past the doors. You will all know which one is that which you seek when you reach it.'_

"That's not really reassuring," Milton says, his voice shaking a little. "How the heck are we going to know?"

_'You will. Have faith.'_

The redhead sighs, and we continue on our way. After a while, I hear this eerie little voice inside my head that sounded like the snake that talked to Harry in the first Harry Potter movie; like a Komodo dragon (you know, if they could talk). It even has the distinctly English accent.

_"You're close," _it hisses. _"Too close."_

I frown, shivering a little. Too close? What does that mean?

Instead of trying to answer the question, I ignore the little voice and keep the whole incident to myself.

* * *

"Shut up!" Eddie suddenly exclaims, stopping all of us.

"No one said anything," Jack says, frowning.

"No, I'm talking to the stupid little voice in my head that keeps telling me we're close, too close. What the heck does 'too close' mean?! I'm sick of it!"

"Wait, you're hearing the voice, too?!" I blurt out, eyes widening. That incessant little voice has been driving me nuts, and I'm sure if Eddie hadn't snapped just now I would have.

"Whoa. That is so creepy. I thought I was the only one," Milton nervously states.

"Same here," Kiara says, her voice shaking a little. Jerry and Jack also say the same thing.

"Ok… this little voice obviously isn't our consciences…" I trail off. The pit of dread in my stomach deepens.

"Then what is it?" Jerry asks, his voice sounding uneasy. He looks around, as if he could find the source.

_"That would be me."_ The ghost is tall, at _least _a foot taller than me, with a stethoscope around his neck and a lab coat; the typical doctor's outfit, except for two things:

The giant machetes in his hands.

Mike Komodo grins wickedly, spinning the weapons in two wide circles. _"Where are you young people going? Have you checked in yet?"_

He takes a step forward, and then there's a blur. I feel a rush of air. My back is suddenly hitting the wall, prompting a grunt to exit my lips. I try to move my arms, but it's like there's a giant invisible hand squeezing me, keeping me in place and pinning them to my sides. I look over and notice that the others are in the same predicament, with Jack and Jerry on either side of me and Kiara, Eddie, and Milton opposite from us.

Suddenly (I feel like I'm saying that a lot lately) Mike is in front of me, with the tip of one of the blades underneath my chin. The fact that I feel pain blooming in the spot with just a bare touch tells me how razor sharp the edge is. He pushes upwards slowly, forcing me to raise my chin or have the weapon cut into my skin. _"Especially you, pretty Blondie. I would hate to not have a jewel like you on record."_

Jack growls as my breath catches in my throat. Mike could easily thrust the machete up and split my skull in half. And yet somehow, even in the frozen, scared-out-of-my-wits state I'm in, I manage to glare at him. The nickname _still _irks me, not matter who uses it.

His grin widens, scaring me even more than the possibility of getting stabbed through the bottom of my chin. _"Ooh, a feisty one… I like that."_

Creeper, much? Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jack struggle against the invisible bonds holding him.

"Oh, no, we don't have jobs yet," Jerry says offhandedly, as if he was just asked how he was doing, though I do detect a small tremor in his voice.

We (including the ghost) stare at him.

_"Pardon?"_ Komodo finally asks.

What the fudge. Jerry just managed to perplex a murderous doctor with his stupidity. What. The. Frickin. Fudge.

"You asked if we've checked in?" Jerry says. "We can't if we don't have jobs. How else would we get checks?"

There's silence for a few long moments.

_"In all the years of my existence, I don't believe I have ever met anyone so obtuse."_

Jerry frowns, seeming offended. "You're calling me a right angle?"

_"Why, Mike, you know the living human's mind is weak," _a new voice says, interrupting my brief mental note about tutoring Jerry in basic Geometry (we learned about obtuse angles and things like that in fifth grade! Five years ago!). It's different from Mike's, less like a snake and more like an Englishman with a sore throat. It's coming from off to my left, but I don't want to turn for fear of getting nicked. Mike looks up at the source of the voice and grins. _"Whether it's in intelligence, or will, or resolve; all of them, weak. Except for those few…"_

Jack gasps. The voice continues on, getting closer. I can only assume that Hartono is walking (or floating) forward.

_"I think you're right," _Mike says in response, looking back down at me and smirking. _"This girl is obviously an exceptional one." _I glower at him, hoping that maybe, just maybe, if I do it hard enough, I can shoot lasers out of my eyes and kill him. Again.

He laughs. _"Look at the way she's glaring at me!" _He lifts a hand and touches my cheek with cold fingers. I move my head away from him.

"Don't touch her!" Jack yells, suddenly breaking away from the bonds that hold him somehow and lunging at Mike. My head instinctively whips towards him, and the blade under my chin slices the skin underneath my jaw. I can feel the warm blood from the injury sliding down my neck and into my shirt. Jack's body abruptly stops and bends at the waist, as if he had just crashed into a railing, and then flies back against the wall. He grunts at the impact.

The whole incident happens within three seconds.

_"Yes, I suppose she is,"_ Hartono says, his voice sounding amused as he finally enters my line of sight. He's wearing a flowing black shirt and pants that seem to hang off of his limbs, which gives him an otherworldy appearance that sends a chill down my spine. Long, white hair that looks longer than mine cascades down his back. _"Though I wasn't talking about her." _He stops in front of Jack, with his arms folded behind his back.

To anyone else, Jack looks extremely angry and tense (a rare expression for one so placid) as he breaths hard. But I, knowing him the way I do, can see the fear in his eyes.

He's terrified._  
_

"You're the one that made me push K-Kim, aren't you?!" Jack accuses. He winces, and I know that he's mentally berating himself for showing weakness by stuttering.

Wait, what? When did he… oh. When we entered the hospital. But that wasn't his fault, even Victoria said so! It was a ghost that possessed him…

It was _Hartono _that possessed him.

Said ghost stands there for a few moments, simply staring at Jack. It's like they're having a conversation, just with no words. Jack glares at him with a growing intensity. Hartono raises an eyebrow. Jack's eyes slowly widen in fear, his glare fading, and he shoots a nervous glance over the ghost's shoulder, in Milton's direction. Hartono smirks again.

_"Is that so?…"_

He suddenly disappears into a puff of green smoke. But, unlike Heidi, he doesn't reappear somewhere else. Milton abruptly stumbles away from the wall, falling to his hands and knees and breathing hard.

The invisible lets go of me, and I can suddenly move again. Mike moves away from me, standing back and simply watching as Kiara, Eddie, Jack, Jerry and I crowd around Milton.

"Milton!" Jack exclaims, hurrying over too his friend's side. He places a hand on Milton's shoulder.

Milton's breathing gradually returns to normal. Jack removes his hand as the redhead stands up slowly, his head down and hiding his expression.

_"Mmmm__… He puts up quite a fight for one so frail looking… oh! How surprising! He's been possessed before…"_ The voice is wrong coming out of Milton's mouth, unnatural. I can physically hear the smirk in Hartono's tone. He raises his head and the glowing green eyes are clearly visible. We step back.

Milton's head snaps to the side violently. "Get _out _of my _head!" _he growls, sounding more like himself, if not the slightest bit distorted. His voice is angry and scared; a combination I've never heard from him. He falls to his knees, groaning.

"Milton!" Kiara screams, getting on her knees beside the smart boy. She grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him. "Hartono, you undead freak! Leave him alone!"

Milton opens his eyes again. Unlike Jack, whose long(ish) hair could hid his eyes when messy, Milton's are clearly visible. It's easy to see that his irises are a swirling mess of glowing green and ocean blue. The colors are shifting around, fighting for dominance; a perfect representation of the internal battle taking place within the owner.

The green suddenly disappears. The normal blue is visible for a few seconds before his eyelids fall shut, hiding them, and he falls forward, into Kiara's arms.

"Milton?" Jerry whispers.

Kiara suddenly screams; Hartono has her by the hair and is dragging her away. With nothing under him to support him, Milton's head and upper body fall to the ground. Eddie, being the closest one to him, moves over and picks Milton up so that the unconscious teen's body is resting against his.

_"You dare defy me?" _Hartono hisses, letting go of her hair and allowing her to fall to the ground. He kicks her in the stomach, and she curls up on herself.

"Kiara!" Jack exclaims, standing up. Then he hesitates, looking back at Milton and obviously not sure about whether he should try and help Kiara or stay with the redhead.

"You're such a douche, you know that?" Kiara says to Hartono, coughing and glancing over at us. I immediately realize what she's doing; she's drawing attention away from herself and making sure to keep it that way.

_"You insolent little…" _Hartono bends down and grabs Kiara by the neck, lifting her up a good two or three inches off of the ground. Jack takes a step forward. Hartono stops him with a glare.

_"Come any nearer and I will crush her windpipe," _the ghost warns. Jack clenches his fists but stays in place.

Kiara suddenly draws her leg back and kicks Hartono in the shin. He curses and drops her, stumbling to catch his balance. She kicks out again to bring him down, and then quickly scrambles up and back over to the rest of us. Hartono falls, bringing his brother (who was, at some point, came and stood by his side) down with him.

"Run!" Kiara yells. Jack quickly picks up Milton, and together bolt past the two flailing ghosts and start running like Rudy when he gets Marge mad.

Behind me, I hear the ghosts arguing with each other (even _dead_ siblings fight) as they scramble to get up and chase after us. Their voices fade as we get farther away.

_"Curses! Why can't I summon my blades?!" _I hear Hartono growl.

_"It's that blasted Victoria girl!"_ Mike hisses in reply._ "She figured out a way to put a block on our abilities. I can't float or teleport."_

_"So we have to RUN?!" _Hartono exclaims, as if the idea was preposterous.

_"Just go, you dolt! They're getting away! Here's one of my blades. I'll go through this door; hopefully it leads to somewhere further down the hallway."_

My stomach coils in dread (AGAIN) at the statement. These ghosts have been living in this hospital for the past two hundred and fifty years; they had to know it inside out. Behind me, I hear a door open and close and rapid footsteps.

They had begun the pursuit.

Jerry suddenly stops. "This is it! This is the door!" Before anyone can react, he yanks it open. Blocking the opening is a short wall about five feet high. On top of it, I can see the railing for the beginning of the stairwell.

Jerry grabs onto the ledge and quickly scrambles up the wall, then gestures for Jack to bring Milton up. Working together, they get the unconscious redhead up onto the wall. Jack hoists me up next, and I my brain screams at me for taking the time to blush at his hands around my waist when there's a large chance of DEATH right now. He offers Kiara a hand, but she declines and tells him to go up. He lets out an annoyed huff and climbs up.

The sound of another door opening is heard; Mike must have found a shortcut. My panic intensifies, and I scream at the last two to hurry up. Kiara scrambles up the wall.

Eddie is the last one in the doorway. He steps forward and glances to his right, (the side where Mike would be approaching from) and his eyes widen. He ducks.

A machete goes flying over him, passing right through the spot where his head was. We hear a scream; the blade must have hit Hartono.

He pops back up, grabbing onto the ledge with a shaky grin. "That was a close o—"

_Cra-shink._

Eddie's eyes widen. He opens his mouth, but nothing but a gurgled groan comes out. He twitches a couple of times, and then falls backwards, blood spilling onto floor around his head.

My brain finally reacts to the sickening sound that resulted from the blade sinking into Eddie's head, and I scream.

* * *

**"At the temple there is a poem called "Loss" carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read loss, only feel it."****  
****― Arthur Golden, _Memoirs of a Geisha_**

**Oh my gosh, this chapter is all over the place. Hopefully it's long enough to make up for another long wait that will most likely be in the near future. SOWWIE!****  
**

**So, did anyone catch the minor parody things on Heidi's floor? Meh… and SOMEONE that I mentioned in this chapter (on that same floor) sang a CERTAIN THEME SONG *HINT HINT* . Does anyone know who sang what? HEHEHEHEH_  
_**

**On the subject of Heidi, how did you enjoy your floor **Hgirl**? And **redneck 141**, (if you're reading this) you can clearly see (or read) that Mike is here****… and that he has a brother****… and he's British****… yeah. Quick question, are you educated? I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but your ghost entry had so many spelling and grammar mistakes that I couldn't help but wonder****… ** As for Bubblina Gumdrop **and the other guest reviewer that submitted ghosts, Bella and Iris (respectively) are coming up later, I promise. SEE PEOPLE? YOU COULD HAVE REVIEWED AND SUBMITTED GHOSTS! I GAVE YOU A CHANCE, AND ONLY FOUR PEOPLE DID (including Heidi). WELL TOO LATE NOW, SUCKAS.**

**Oh, yeah. The, um, cliffhanger. Yeah… about that… I probably should have warned about character deaths (yes, DEATHS, as in plural. This is a HORROR fic)****… I'd really prefer not to address it****…**

******Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? Or "Turkey Day" as author **misscakerella **calls it. She's the author of a How to Rock/Rags xover that I'm currently reading. You guys should go check it out.**

******Ok! ****… Urg, I'm forgetting to mention something, I know it. I just don't know what. Oh well. Read and review, my pretties, and MAYBE I won't send you coal for Xmas.**

**********RANDOM SHOUTOUT TO MAH FRIEND **Lindsey Lithium**! RAWR!**

**********Until next time.**

**********~BP**


	4. Chapter 4

**Once again not in the best of moods, which really isn't fair to you guys because you deserve better. I just had to post this. I'm really not happy with this chapter, but I owe it to you guys to update. SO, without further ado…**

* * *

There are no ghosts ghost coming to kill us.

There is no danger of loosing our lives.

There's not even the sound of my scream in my own ears.

There's just Eddie.

On the floor.

Dead.

"EDDIE!" someone screams. It might have been me. It might have been Kiara. It might have been all of us. I don't know.

Kiara reaches for the motionless teen, her breath coming in quick gasps. "No-o…"

The door swings shut, gently pushing her hand away.

Kiara screams and pounds on it.

Vicky's words appear on the door. _'You guys… I'm so sorry… He's beyond saving…'_

"Gah… what's going on?" Milton's groggy voice suddenly inquires. Oh, Milton; blissfully unaware of the outside world for a few brief minutes. He and Eddie were best friends. They met through doing karate at the dojo, and they just bonded from there. They're probably even closer than Jack and Jerry.

In fact, Eddie was the first, the glue, the foundation that the Wasabi Warriors were built off of. One by one, we joined the dojo, until we became the six that we are today.

Now five.

This is different than Jerry disappearing. We didn't absolutely know he was dead. We didn't see his body. It was just…

I sit and stare at the door, numb. Kiara had stopped banging on the door and instead was just kicking repeatedly and cursing.

"Hey… we made it!" Milton says, a bit nervous. Silence always has made him uncomfortable. "But… where's Eddie?"

No one can answer him.

"Guys?" the (un)mercifully oblivious redhead asks, his voice shaking a little. He sounds so… young. Like a scared five year old, wanting to know why his dog wouldn't wake up. "Where is Eddie?"

_'Oh, honey…'_

"Victoria? Uh, Vicky? Why aren't they talking to me?" Milton sounds near tears.

_'Eddie's… gone.' _

"What?!" His voice goes up at least two octaves. "I— W-What do you mean, _gone_?!"

_'I think you know what I mean.'_

"N-No." He croaks. "Y-You're l-lying." I feel a hand on my shoulder. "Kim. K-kim. Please…"

What is he asking for? A confirmation? A denial? Either way, my heart crumbles at his touch. I feel a slight sting in my eyes before the waterworks start. I turn and bury my face into his chest, clutching the fabric in my hands and screaming my lungs out.

* * *

We must have sat there for an hour or more, just lamenting.

Wallowing.

Suffering.

Mourning.

The five of us had subconsciously huddled together. Even Kiara is sitting down, squeezed in between Jerry and Milton as she glares at the door. I'm huddled against Jack, with Milton on my other side. On any other day, I would be blushing at how close Jack and I are. But this isn't any other day.

It's as if being closer to one another would help. It might have. It might not have. I never realized how much of a closely knit group we are until now. It's like we're a collective sweater; when one thread is cut, the rest of it will eventually unravel as well.

Our phones buzz, filling the silence. It seems to do a good job of reanimating us, because we had previously been just… frozen.

Rustling. We're so close together that I can tell exactly who it is that's moving without even looking: Jerry.

"You guys…" he says quietly, his voice trembling. "Victoria says we should get a move on."

"What's the point? We're gonna die anyway." Milton says dully.

He sounds devoid of any emotion whatsoever. From about an hour ago to now, he had just shut off his emotions. No crying, no sniffling, not even any shows of anger. I have no idea what to make of it. What's going on in that head of his?

Jack removes his arms from around me and stands up. I immediately feel the loss of his warmth, longing for it once again.

He chooses his words carefully, his voice shaking a little as he speaks. "The point is… that we probably _should_. I don't think that Eddie would want us to just sit here and let ourselves get killed."

"Really?" Kiara asks, her voice barely above a growl. Unlike Milton, she _is _expressing some kind of feeling; anger. "That's not what you were saying when we were in the same situation with Jerry."

Said Latino shifts uncomfortably. Jack frowns. "That's different…"

"Is it really?" I say softly. We all know Jack's unspoken words;

It's different because we weren't sure that Jerry was dead.

The telltale buzzing sound once again fills the silence. I sigh and get out my phone, hoping for a distraction.

_'If it makes any a y'all feel better… ya might be able ta see Eddie again.'_

Milton, who had also brought forth his phone, abruptly stands up. One small glimmer of hope, a feeling we're all lacking, shines feebly in his eyes. "You mean we can bring him back?"

_'No… but ya can see 'im one last time.'_

"Oh." Milton deflates.

_'Well, the spirit a any mortal that dies in this hospital gets sent ta tha second floor. Some a them are corrupted an' turn malevolent on tha way, but Eddie seemed like a nice enough kid. You'll be able to interact with him, talk to 'im, hug 'im if you want. Same thing if any more a ya die… oh, poo, I shouldn' a said that.'_

Milton's eyes widen. "You mean _more _of us could die?!"

_'Well…'_

"Then we should just stay here," he says, frowning. "I mean, someone's bound to notice we're missing, right? They'll come looking for us."

"_…_he's got a point," I say slowly.

"Do you guys really think that these psychotic ghosts are going to just _sit there _and wait for us to come to them?" Kiara says in a hard, cold voice. Yet, a slight underlying tremor reveals her fear. She stands up. "Who knows whether or not they can sense us right now, or if they can hear what we're saying? Who says Victoria's the only one that can somehow track our progress? Shouldn't we at least _try _to make it out?"

_'__It's possible that she's not wrong,'_ Victor's cursive script says. _'Victoria and Vicky and I may not be the only spirit that can see beyond the walls of our floor. We can also do small things, like moving objects around, even though we can't leave our floor. There may be another soul that will attempt to do something like that and harm you. The best course of action is to continue.'_

My eyes widen. So we have to deal with multiple ghosts trying to kill us at once? I look around. I don't see any "objects" around here that could possibly do anything, but who knows what could come up those stairs?

I scoot away from the first step, closer to Jerry.

Frustrated, Jack runs a hand through his hair and sighs.

"But there are people that are bound to have noticed that we left!" Milton insists, the volume of his voice rising. "How many stands did we pass by tonight? Every one of the owners were telling us to come and play a game! Someone _has _to remember us!"

Jack punches a hole in the wall next to him.

"We and everyone within a thirty mile radius are at this fair tonight, so-called smart one," Kiara snarls. "And unless the people working at the booths decided to memorize every face they saw, no one is going to remember us."

Another hole in the wall. I sigh, feeling a headache coming on. The two of them are about to start backing up their arguments with intellectual crap and words too big for me to understand, therefore successfully making me feel stupid. I draw my legs up to me and rest my arms on my knees, placing my head on top of them.

"Shows what you know. Recent cognitive psychological fractionation of the memory control processes—"

"You guys," the Latino next to me says quietly. No one but me hears him over the sound of the twin and the redhead's battle of the minds. I can feel myself getting more and more annoyed.

"You guys?" Jerry says again, louder this time. He's still not heard by anyone by me.

"HEY!" I yell, raising my head. "SHUT UP!"

Silence. Milton, Kiara and Jack stop and stare, as well as Jerry. I simply let my head fall back onto my knees, glad for the momentary silence.

"…can we make a promise right now?" Jerry asks meekly, the last one to stand up. He sounds frightened, vulnerable, nothing like the confident and carefree guy that he is on a regular basis. I raise my head, weary but curious. When no one answers, he begs. "_Please._"

My annoyance dissolves at the word. I've never heard so much pain in a single statement.

"What promise, Jerry?" Kiara asks softly.

"That we'll never turn on each other."

* * *

Kiara and Milton immediately stopped fighting after that, and Jack (very unsuccessfully) tried to repair the walls in some way. We make our way down the steps to the next floor. The stairwell is big enough for us to walk in pairs next to each other, so we go down with Kiara and I in the front, Milton and Jack next, and Jerry walking by himself in the back (to make sure nothing sneaks up on us, he said). It doesn't exactly help that there are no lights whatsoever, so we have to walk down blindly. We make sure to take small steps, not wanting to stumble…

… until we reach the bottom.

I know we've left the stairwell because the wall on my side suddenly stops. I keep moving forward and find that we're no longer descending.

"Hey, guys, I think—"

And then I walk right into the water.

It's _freezing. _Colder than when the guys tricked me into walking out into a snowdrift in nothing but a tank top and shorts. Colder than when I was five and decided it would be a good idea to hide in a freezer during a game of hide and seek. Colder than anything I've ever experienced before.

The temperature of the water shocks me so much that I can't do much more than let out a surprised gasp before slipping under the surface. It invades my lungs, mocking the fact that I couldn't get a breath before falling. I vaguely hear another splash over the loud pounding in my ears. Did Kiara fall, too?

My brain takes about three seconds before deciding that it'd be a good idea to get air. I look around frantically, searching for any light that can direct me to the surface, but there is none. There's no way of telling which way is up. But then, my leg brushes against something. Whatever it is latches onto my ankle. Panicking even more, I kick at it, satisfied when my other foot makes contact with something round. I push off of it; my foot sinks into the object a little, but I still manage to launch off.

It all happened in under ten seconds.

"—im?! Kiara?!" I hear Jack's voice calling. I try to respond, but my lungs are still trying to hack up water, and nothing but a choked gasp comes out. I reach an arm in the direction of his voice.

"Wait, I have a light!" Jerry's voice says. A split second later, I can see a beam of light. It blinds me for a few seconds before my eyes adjust and I can see Jack, Milton and Jerry all side by side. A couple of feet behind them is the stairwell. Jack and Jerry help pull me up onto solid ground with them.

Wait, what about Kiara?

My brain goes back to whatever grabbed me underwater. Could it have been her? I try to voice my concerns, but I'm still fighting for the oxygen that I can't seem to get enough of.

"Kiara," Milton suddenly says, his eyes widening. "Didn't she fall in, too? She's still in there!" Without waiting for anyone to respond, he dives in after her.

"Milton!" Jack yells. He starts to move forward, when Jerry grabs his shoulder.

"Wait, Jack. As weird as it is, he's the best swimmer out of all of us. If anyone can find her, he can, and there's no point in you going, too."

Huh. So Jerry does have some semblance of sense in that so called 'brain' of his.

Jack hesitates, clearly wanting to go in after his twin and his friend.

"He's right," I wheeze, shivering. "Milton'll get her."

That does it. He sits back, fists clenched, and then…

"You had a light this whole time and you didn't use it?"

I was going to say the same thing. Jerry, of all people, would be wary of the dark. He laughs sheepishly. "Yeah… I just remembered. It's an app that I found a few weeks back called Monkey Wrench."

Jack looks murderous, before he closes his eyes and takes a breath. When he opens them again, he seems tense, but no longer angry. It's amazing how effectively he can calm himself down (if he wants to). "It's alright. I made the same mistake. I—" His expression morphs into one of confusion. "Wait, 'Monkey Wrench'?"

Jerry shrugs. "I know. A flashlight has nothing to do with animals. People these days give really stupid names to things."

I stare at him. My breath has finally returned to normal, but I'm still shivering uncontrollably. My teeth are giving new meaning to the word 'chattering,' and it feels like they're going to rattle out of my skull. I really wish I had more than this sweater. "J-Jerry, a monk-key wr-rench isn't…" Then I sigh, shaking my head. There's no point in explaining to him. "You kn-now what? N-Nevermind."

There's another tense silence. I unconsciously move nearer to Jack, the closest of the to boys to me. His body like a furnace after my little dip in freezing water. "What's wrong with me? You must be freezing," he murmurs softly, taking off his hoodie and handing it to me. I start to protest, but he threatens to put it on me himself if I don't take it. Fighting a blush at the thought, I accept it and slip it on. He puts an arm around me and pulls me up against him silently. I look up at him, but had turned to train his eyes on the water. I rest my head on the side of his chest instead.

The seconds tick by, each one seeming longer and more unbearable than the last. At one point, I stop shivering. In an attempt to distract myself, I take the time to observe our surroundings. The walls and ceiling are all white, just like almost every other place in this godforsaken hospital. This little ledge we're on extends out left and right, all the way to the walls on either side. The rest of the room is water. It's like we're at one of those indoor swimming pools, but instead of the pool taking up a certain spot, it makes up the whole room except for this little ledge.

Suddenly, the water ripples, and Milton and Kiara's heads break the surface. The three of us are immediately there, pulling a gasping Milton and a limp Kiara up onto the floor.

"She's not breathing!" Jerry panics, choosing right then to become Captain Obvious. The statement does nothing to help my frazzled nerves, and it's all I can do not to have some sort of break down.

"Milton! You know CPR, right?!" Jack exclaims. For a split second afterwards his nose scrunches up, as if he had realized what he had just said. The red head nods, recovering faster than I had (partly because I was under longer, partly because he got to hold his breath beforehand).

He shoos us away and then kneels next to Kiara's prone figure. The action brings back memories of when my aunt had a heart attack a couple of years ago. My cousin knew CPR, but despite his best efforts… she didn't wake up.

I turn away, hiding my face in Jack's chest under a false hope that I could escape the situation. After an agonizing minute, I hear a cough. I look up; Kiara was bracing herself on the ground, throwing up the water that she had inhaled. I sag in relief. Next to me Jack relaxes as well, making me realize how tense he was. Kiara finishes expelling all the water from her lungs and lies back down on her back, groaning. I figure that I must have kicked her in the stomach or something, because I can't see any sign of a bruise.

_"Water is supposed to be healing. Okaasan says so."_

Lights flood the room, rendering Jerry's flashlight unneeded. I want to cry at the sound of the new voice. We can never catch a break, can we?

I look up and see a young girl that looked exactly Samara from _The Ring, _complete with the white dress and the long black hair covering her face. I suck in a breath when I notice that she's _standing on the surface of the water._

"6 year old Mizuumi Kiyomizu," Kiara groans, coughing one last time before sitting up. "Twisted what her mother, who she calls Okaasan, taught her into an over the top devotion to water. The only way she's different from Georgia Wenn is that she didn't believe she could control water. And then there's her Kappas…"

Mizuumi raises her head at the last word. Her hair parts, revealing her face. Unlike Samara, her face is smooth and unscarred, albeit more than a little pale. Her green eyes twinkle deceptively. _"My Kappas?" _I can detect a faint Asian accent in her voice. _"My beloved Kappas! Oh, Okaasan was wrong. They only wanted to play!"_

Her words chill me even more than the water had. The word "play" coming out of the mouth of a demonic ghost child is never a good thing. At her words, five dark shapes rise up out of the water. They're formless, constantly shifting, as if they aren't sure what they want to look like. Each of them has a pair of glowing flourescent yellow eyes with no pupils; they remind me of the heartless from Kingdom Hearts.

Her lips part in a devious smile. _"Look! One for all of you to play with!"_

Our phones buzz. Miraculously, mine is still working even after it's been dunked underwater. _'Ok, the Kappas have one goal, and that is basically to drown all of you. Those things that tried to grab those of you that were in the water? Kappas. A couple of you kicked them, which is good because it would have held you there until you drowned.'_

Wait. So that means I didn't kick Kiara? Despite the situation we're in, I feel a huge weight lifting off of my chest. I felt horribly guilty thinking that Kiara's near death had been completely my fault, but at least now I know it wasn't.

_'Mizuumi has an anklet that she channels her power with. It helps her to control the water; the temperature, the level, and how much of it there is. If you can destroy it, then the water will disappear, you find the stairs that lead down to the door, and get the heck out of there.'_

I look up at the girl, noticing for the first time the silver band around her ankle. It's simple, with no designs or markings whatsoever, and looks similar to the cuff of shackles that go around your feet.

"What about the coppers?" Jerry whispers, glancing at the five shapes. "Are they gonna arrest us before drowning us? They don't even have badges! Can they do that?"

_'…'_

"Jerry, 'Kappa', not a 'copper,'" Kiara says slowly. "A Kappa is a creature from Japenese folklore. It's usually seen as a mischevious troublemaker. These ones look nothing like any of the descriptions from legend though…"

_"My Kappas are special. They're different from all the others." _

Milton suddenly stands up. "Hey, Mizuumi! I'll play with _you, _but not your Kappas!"

_What?! _Is he crazy?!

Jack's eyes widen. Jerry tugs on Milton's pant leg. "Are you crazy?!" he hisses.

"Just trust me," the smart redhead whispers back. He straightens.

_"Really?" _the girl asks, her eyes widening hopefully showing how completely oblivious she was to what's going on with us. But then she frowns. _"Why don't you want to play with my Kappas? They know a lot of fun water games."_

"But I know lots of fun games, too," Milton responds, changing his tone of voice to sound enticing.

_"Well, then, is it a bloody game? Blood is just as important as water."_

Jack, Kiara and I suck in a simultaneous breath and Jerry makes a sound that I can't identify. There's a pause. Then, "Do you want it to be?"

Mizuumi's giggle is answer enough. "And I want your friends to play too!"

"Ok…" Milton takes a deep breath. "Ok. I have to think about if first."

"Milton, what are you doing?!" Jack whisper yells.

"Trust me, you guys, please," he responds. He blinks, suddenly clutching his forearm just as our phones buzz again. A soft green glow can be seen peeking through the orange fabric of his sweater.

_'Good luck to you, skinny one. An ethreal blade, perhaps?'_

"Victor says good luck…" I say, when I notice that Milton didn't move to get out his phone. "…and he mentioned something about an ethreal blade? What?"

Milton smiles wryly, slowly bringing his arm back down. "Well. Thanks, Victor." He holds his sleeve as if he didn't want something to fall out. What the heck? Wait a second…

"You guys, a few feet to the left you can see a white rectangle, and another one further down in front of it. I think they're steps. Get over there and get ready to run." He turns back to Mizuumi before any of us can question him. After some hesitation, we do as he says and crawl toward the steps. "Mizuumi? To play this game, you need to come close enough for me to reach your foot."

The girl frowns. "But… my anklet's on my foot. And not even my Kappas are allowed to touch my anklet."

"Oh, I didn't even notice your anklet," Milton responds. "It's really pretty. Can I see it?"

"Mmm… ok…"

She walks across the surface of the water until she arrives in front of Milton, giving him a clear view of the anklet. He kneels down in front of her and then, in one swift motion produces a sleek and slightly glowing blade from his sleeve and jabs it at the anklet. The silver band breaks, and Mizuumi screams as the blade stabs her foot. She stumbles backwards, flying above the surface of the rapidly receding water and floating in the air.

"YOU BROKE MY ANKLET!" she screams. Her voice has taken on a demonic note, and her hair is floating around her head like a black halo, writhing and moving as if it were alive. "MY KAPPAS CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT THE WATER!" Milton steps back, blade in hand.

"Milton—" Jack starts to say.

"Go!" the redhead yells. "I'm right behind you."

We start running down the steps just as the last of the water disappears. There is no sign of the Kappas, and the door's in clear view. Jack gets there first and yanks it open, ushering the rest of us through.

"See you guys on the second floor," Milton says, smiling wistfully before kicking the door closed behind him.

* * *

**"My family is my strength and my weakness."  
—Aishwarva Rai Backchan**

**Review?**


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